A Short Trip Offshore

3 nights. That's all.

I think it's good to get this offshore yearning out of my system, as my physical being really can only take so much beating - the freakin' cold airconditioning, the trudging around and walking flights and flights of stairs in heavy metal-toed boots. Not to mention the fact that I'm currently experiencing the WORST toothache in the world, one that throbs inside my right cheek and makes me dizzy at times.

Clearly the timing of this trip could be improved. But it cannot be helped, this is the only time when I will be allowed to come out, and even that was agreed reluctantly.

Our poor BooBoo is at the Vet's, probably planning his "payback" to me (I'll pick him up when I get back on Saturday) in the form of one veeeeeeeeery long sulk.

Sunrise over the Petra Endeavour

Anyway, the thing I really am yearning for right now is next Thursday, when I will say adios to Miri and return home for the Christmas Holidays.

Offshore again

Sigh so much for the weekend.

Here I am, after more than a year of dry land. And what a new place it is, the previous place that I could once feel my way around with the back of my hand, where we winged it in a tiny office (my back was towards a rack of electrical isolation switches), to my would-be room now (should I have remained) having its own 32-inch LCD TV. Whoo, times have changed. My old room didn't even have enough space for me to sit on the floor.


It's nice though to see the familiar faces, to shake their hands and have them bring me around the new quarters. Yes, you see, the place might be new, but the people, the warmth, the welcome, is warmly, wonderfully, familiar.

Borneo Rainforest Resort - A Farewell (late post)

We took this trip early last December, so this is a rather late post.

The F23 crew organized a stay at the Borneo Rainforest Resort in December, and we spent one night at the place. We (AK & me, the guys and their families, plus our 2 lady trainees) went on a tractor ride which took us on a tour of the place, past vast oil palm plantations stretching into the horizon, farms of chickens and goats, fruit trees (jackfruit, durians, breadfruit - no fruits yet though). We also hiked through some of the (remaining) virgin jungle. Nothing really spectacular I would say but still very nice - waterfalls, lakes for fishing, a slow boat ride.

We (well, not me) also had some fun at the huge activity centre. The kids had colouring books and model building, while the guys played volleyball, and AK rather shamelessly outshone them all. I really wanted to play, but my stupid frozen shoulder-or-extra-rib/spur was hurting too much to play any sport requiring shoulder muscle movement. Boo-hoo :(

We stayed in little timber houses on stilts that stood over some stagnant water holes. No smell, luckily. The rooms are all varnished wood, something I liked a lot. And, the nicest surprise, the amenities were hotel-like - air conditioning, bedroom slippers, hot showers replete with miniature toiletries. No worries about having to set up camp or waging mosquitoe wars. Luxury in the middle of it all!

Fishing hole.

We were guided to this cool waterfall after 20 minutes of trekking through the jungle (nothing heart-stopping, physically - most of the kids and older folks managed the hike, but then again these are Sarawakians we are talking about. Way fitter than us lousy Westerners, generally). In the stifling heat everyone was so tempted to just dive into the pool, jeans and all. But being the civilized offshore folk that we are, of course we didn't.

What a wonderful farewell. We always have so much fun, no matter what we do.

I miss everyone.

Two in KL, One with the Guys

!!!!!!


Welcome Weekend!


Flew down to KL for work this week.

JW Mariott, the hotel I once dreamt of having my wedding at, is seriously overrated. Half an hour to check in, and despite being 40% more expensive than the usual (better) hotels we bunk at, breakfast it not included. When we did have breakfast (pay-lah), it was one of the most miserable buffets I'd ever seen. Yeesh, two thumbs down. Yeoh Tiong Lay, please spend a night or two at Nikko or Milennium, or even Mariott Miri, and learn something. Maybe this kind of service was acceptable, say ten years ago. This day, there's just no excuse. First Malaysian company to be listed in the Tokyo stock exchange? Well, it ain't showin' at the Mariott KL. Pooh!

Bought my first pair of jeans in 6 years, from Zara. Everything I want in a pair - dark, light-absorbing (read: slimming) denim, in a comfy stretch yet not too tight. :) Love the clothes there - great basics, really nice quality. And MNG is getting so commonplace these days. Phwah, damn aksyen.



Pavillion KL, all decked up for the Chinese New Year.

Thursday night - back to Miri. Fridat Night - F23 Dinner!

I belonged. I actually had fun at a dinner function. No surprises, it was with my offshore crew and their families.

I had this warm, cosy feeling that stayed in me the whole night, despite the lack of sleep the night before and the crazy driving to and from the hotel. The whole night was one fun cocktail of karaoke, teasing and egging each other to take up the microphone. Some needed a bit more motivation (e.g. a glass of wine or two) to take to the stage. These are not rough-and-tough offshore guys, they're husbands, fathers, friends, and crooners. Laughter, hearty eating (not one of those polite one-bite-then-put-down-fork dinners, this one), cracking jokes on the karaoke mike that got even the hotel servers smiling.

Oh, and One More Thing:-

AK read this to me out loud last night. Hilarious but so painfully true.

Last of the Last (For now, at least)

Am offshore at yet another platform, where the guys are older (wiser? heck, let's not go there....) and rather more resistant to change. Requests for plasma TV's, staff onshore to do the work for them and the like. Yeesh, a bit tougher than the last one I went to..for sure.

Again, this makes me grateful for the my crew - or ex crew :( who embrace change much better than the folks here and are way more eager to learn and try new stuff.

Well, on the VERY bright side, I'm only here for a night, which is more than sufficient, thank you very much.

The air conditioning is causing my hands to numb and knees to hurt.

Looking forward to enjoying half a public holiday (will only get back onshore by noon) tomorrow with AK. Yay!

ThingsI Miss About Offshore

1) Being the boss, and a lady one at that
2) Free food, anytime of the day - including 6 meals, and all the bought biscuits/cook's cookies/cake I can eat all day
3) Having my laundry done, room tidied every single day, and bathroom scrubbed every single week
4) Smiling almost every moment of the day, just because there are people to smile to
5) Daily exercise without even realizing it
6) Sea breezes/wind - I remember my walkabouts every morning - with the wind in my face, my pumps running, the turbines roaring away - I really felt - not only did I belong, I owned this place. Yeah cocky I know, but I did
7) Dropping onto bed at night exhausted but so fulfilled - all I needed was my phone call to AK (my room had a phone that calls out! - one of 2 in the whole platform that does)
8) Joking over the walkie-talkie - we'd poke each other over the radio, laugh and had a whole lot of fun. It seldom felt like real work when there was so much joking and laughing and general fun-having. Everything feels like an adventure, and fresh when we did
9) Morning meetings at 6 in the morning, when everyone is still groggy and struggling to concentrate, and our Radio Operator would make funny sounds when he tested out the microphone for the OIM
10) Making announcements over the PA system - "Attention Operations Crew" would be turned into "Attention Operation Screw" and everyone would crack up
11) Troubleshooting in the wee hours of the morning with the guys - working till exaustion and getting frustrated that every damn thing we tried seemed to be unable to work, struggling to get the system back. But we were never angry, never snapped or so much as glanced at one another in any way other than grinning and smiling. People not so in the know have the general impression that offshore folk are a bunch of short tempered no-mercy people, but at F23 I have never experienced anything other than civility, friendliness and a whole lot of fun. Woe betide you if you can't take a joke, though
12) The fact that I could never take myself too seriously when I was with these guys. They taught me that work can be fun, that colleagues can be so much more than colleagues -- they can be friend, and so much more - they can actually be family
13) Lunchtime conversations - talking about anything and everything. I have heard stories about one guy's wife who thinks he's cheating on her, one guy who thinks his wife is cheating on him, fishing tales, travel tales, farming tales, cock-fighting, four-wheel-drive buying, stories about cats, kids, rambutan farms, man and wife relationships - how their wives cope with their husbands not around more than half the time, the rising prices of property in Miri (and advice on house buying). I've learned so many life lessons on the lunch table
14) Watching the Thomas Cup badminton match together, cheering like mad along with everyone else
15) Offshore work hard play hard - we'd take half a day off once a fortnight and the guys would set up the karaoke set and belt out tunes like there's no tomorrow. There'd be dancing and Mexico waves and the general slaughtering of cheesy 80's tunes.
16) The adrenaline rush when we solved an issue or found the bloody problem with the *&%^ pump that refuses to run - there's nothing like it
17) Starting up the platform after a shutdown in the middle of the night - it'd be just us and and the silent platform soon to transform into a gas producer. We'd be running around starting the motors, opening valves, and the grand finale - starting our Boeing 737 gas turbine engine, which, when starting, sounds exactly like a plane taking off. Thus the guy manning the PC starting the turbine is would be nicknamed the "pilot". We'd camp out in the room there (cos it takes abotu two hours to start it - if we're lucky) and someone would bring drinks and snacks if the startup took too long.
18) There is no feeling like it - the rush of adrenaline when starting up or solving the problem, then the endorphin rush when we revel in the victory and high-five each other when we get it done. Man, I will never have this feeling again I think. This takes some solid comraderie, and of course, fun all around.
19) Having a friend in the next room. For 2 years I slept in my cosy (read: tiny) single room with one of my OT's next door, a wall separating us of course. Since I am the clumsiest WS in the history of F23, many a time my dropping things would wake himup. He would then knock on the wall, a sign asking me if I am ok. It was nice to have someone next door who cared.
20) Not having to give a damn about how I looked or what I wore - coveralls, hair in a bun or cut short (I even cut my own hair once when I felt it was too long). Not having to worry about what to wear (aargh, I hate that I have to spend time on this every now - looking presentable). No need to spend money on makeup, hair gel, fancy shmancy stuff.
21) Being away from civilization for 2 weeks also safely means that I don't spend any $$ at all for 2 weeks. Which expains how I managed to save and invest quite a nice sum of it :)
22) My offshore allowance!!
23) Learning to speak Iban, and cracking the crew up every time I attempt to speak it - why, I don't know but it really makes my day to crack them up



I'm not sure I'm able to ever get over leaving my second home. Offshore life might be tough in some ways - I think I aged more than a few times the years I spent offshore, but I loved the company, and the work. I loved running up and down the platform, seeing this, saying that, just being so busy that there was no time to think - living in the moment every single second. I loved surviving on a combination of caffeine and adrenaline. I loved climbing like a monkey all over the glycol regen skid. I loved scaling the KA crane and the getting jelly legs up there - but the view! I loved staying up all night in the mighty cold KA equipment room trying to start up the gas turbine. I loved it when we were all sprawled on the floor of the room due to exaustion and frustration - that we were in it together. I loved going to office do's with my crew - moving in a group and feeling like we were a gang or something. I loved our teambuilding dinners where we would sit together at a table cos we did not fit in anywhere else. I loved the frequent SMS-ing when we were onshore. I love the morning meetings, when it would my turn to divvy up the work for the day, when I would say good morning and it would a resounding chorus "Good Mo-or-rning"I loved that even that could be fun, cos we decided that it would be, just like that.I loved confiding and complaining to my crew, and they'd listen and then confide and complain too.
I guess God really blessed me when He decided that I should go there. I never thought that I'd fit in. In fact I always thought of myself as someone ruthlessly ruthlessly professional and efficient, and that that was the only way to be at work, that the work was all that mattered.
Now I know better. The team matters. The cook matters. The painter matters. The boat people matter. They matter. People matter. Once one realizes what really really matters, then the work just flows thereafter.

Demise of A Colleague's Mum & Waiting A-Waiting

Waiting on the chopper now.....

Well, it's supposed to be good news but it truly isn't - the only reason I am on an flight back to Miri is because the guy who I was working with the past 2 days - his mum just passed away this morning and there is an emergency flight diversion to take him home. So conveniently, I am on that flight too.

I was asking to go home, but never at the expense of someone losing his mum...am gaving gulty vibes now. Well, I didn't ask for it, I guess, and given a choice between him having his mum still alive and me going home today, well, it's a no-brainer. Not even a choice even. What's one more night? Nothng.............

We just met two days ago, and started work straightaway, him giving me all that I asked for and more.

He was just telling me last night that she seemed to be stabilizing (she had heart problems), so I can imagine how shocked and devastated he must be feeling now. No, scrap that. I CANNOT imagine what it would be like suddenly losing my mum. Even thinking about it gives me the chills.

To Ahmad, I am truly sorry for your loss. You and your family will be in my prayers.


Random offshore pics:

GIMME GIMME F23

It has been 3 weeks since I last spent more than 1 night at home. I was in KL for 2 nights, Penang 1 night, Offshore at my home platform F23 10 nights, Brunei 5 days, now in a foreign platform and missing my old place so so much.

I was a proper pampered princess back in F23, my home platform (and always will be! - sniff)

I'm now sharing a room with a guy, who's working the night shift and this means that I can't enter the room in the daytime - so I have to use the washroom in another guy's room. Almost bumped into that guy today coming out of his toilet - luckily I was decent.

My old place has at least 30 people at a time (when I left it we had over a hundred men), and I ate lunch and dinner with my guys, talking about the days' work, and their wives and kids. Here there are only 14 people on the platform, and the dining room is so small the meals are taken staggeredly. Everyone faces the huge plasma TV. I feel so lonely.

Water here is rationed - no more baths which take half an hour or 24-hour laundry. And the water here is cold.

Excuse me if I sound like a whiny princess. I am really quite tough. Honestly, earnestly.

I wanna go home now.

Funny how you don't miss it until you leave it. I always knew I would miss it, but I never realized how just how much:

I MISS F23!!!! (this is the largest font blogger will let me write in)

Sniff again.

Anyway, in the spirit of being positive, here is a list of things which I plan to do once I get back (ahem):

1) Send my old car to the service center - after driving to and from Brunei 4 days, it's high time for a service (damn the Miri roads - I think they murdered my suspension)

2) Pay papa the rest of the $$$$ I owe him - sorry pa for the delay

3) Wash the pile of laundry from BEFORE I went to KL the last week of October (mum, am sorry I put you to shame with this confession)

4) Mop the floor at home - the last I left it the living room floor had the thinnest film of grease on it - yucky sticky greasy feet, ewww...not looking forward to this....anyway, it'll be a good workout (ahh..sorry again mum)

5) Pay a visit to the Immigration office - I, erm, missed renewing my Sarawak work permit and now have to go and wheedle some officer in town to grant me a new one (again mum pls don't panic) - it's pretty common for us nua (erm, busy) West Malaysians who, for some reason, still need our passports and Work Permits to work in Sarawak. Is Sarawak not part of Malaysia? Do I look like Abu Sayyaf????!!!!!!

6) Send my shoes for repair - 4 pairs and counting. 1 of them is the safety shoe I'm wearing now - the sole is hanging loose like a dog's tongue or something and I'm leaving pieces of black rubber residue wherever I walk. Not good. The other, cheap sandals I bought in Miri (RM16!) and the soles removed themselves on the 1st day I wore them. When will I learn that you get what you pay for? Sigh. Another 2 pairs, erm, have burst their straps more than a year ago. Yes, I am an expert procrastinator and it's more fun to buy new ones anyway....wooh sound like a proper girl I do.

Haven't thought about cooking yet, but I did manage to buy some hard-to-find foodstuff from Brunei, where almost all of their food is imported:

1) All-Bran cereal for the renewed health and weight loss plan

2) Cadbury chocolate, made in Australia - Roast Almond - only BN$3.50 (RM8) for 250 grams.

3) Real Australian Tim Tams! Not made in Shah Alam! AK's favourite (AK, if you're reading this, they're in the fridge - bottom shelf - don't eat them all ya!)

4) Off-price (and just a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit off-colour) apples and pears - only BN$1.20 (~RM2.70) for 6 pears and BN$0.80 (~RM1.85) for 3 big apples. I am kiamsiap and not ashamed of it. No more offshore, no more free meals!

5) A huge doughnut with a sugar coating thick enough to crunch satisfactorily- which I already ate, of course. Very nice.

6) Pringles! Only BN$1.70 each! I bought 2- BBQ and Loaded Baked Potato.

Hmm......re-looking at what I bought...so much for health and weight loss......who was I kidding with Purchase No. 1???? Damnit, shoulda just bought more Tim Tams (dark chocolate) and my fave Ginger Nut cookies instead. Self-delusional at the time I musta been. What's with the Yoda-speak??????!!! I blame it on the lack of sleep and the travel by many modes - plane, chopper, boat, bumpy car ride, Brunei Colleague's Mercedes CLK - both the delusional purchase and the Yoda-ism.

Anyway, I have totally gone against my vow to stay here 3 nights and asked for a chopper diversion to take me home tomorrow. Let's hope that this happens.....All da best to Debbs, may she survive this lonesome offshore trip and also summon the strength and willpower to complete her very ambitious to-do list.

Ta ta.

F23 ROCKS!!!!!!!!

Yessssss!! Started up the plant after 8 days of shutdown with intensive maintenance work.

Have never been so sick offshore before, and coincidentally, so busy. Was with fever the first 2 days I came offshore but could not rest due to the bloody activities. I don't think I've signed my names so many times before.

The worst is over now. YESSS!! Start up! Export! Money flowing from the ground into our pipes! Oops, that did not come out right.

Hope this is a kind of "legacy" I can leave behind, although I am not that delusional - I am only part of the TEAM who started up the platform.

I love my crew, I really do. We totally rocked it today. High fives all around, of course.

Life in My Hands

Warning: A bit of drama and plenty of self contemplation ahead...

NO, I did not just give birth. And no, I'm not pregnant either.

It's my job, what else?

What exactly do I do offshore anyway? Pick one:

1) Charm hapless guys to work -

2) Cook for the guys - I catch the fish myself and harpoon turtles, which taste great stewed in a claypot.

3) Offshore entertainer - I serenade men on a cheap karaoke set so they go to sleep happy, albeit slightly disturbed
4) As one of my friends put so eloquently - drive the "oil harvester". Yup, I operate a bad-ass machine with a drill bit the size of a Range Rover. Me and my mean machine, burrowing into dirt at 120 metres water depth, churning up rocks and occasionally accidentally grinding up a fossil or two.

Sorry. Heheh. (and there is no such thing as an oil harvester, or, at least I have not heard of one)

Actually, my work is to, well, give out work. I hate calling it telling the guys what to do, but that's essentially what I do offshore. I don't have the strength to open bolts the size of my fist, so I tell people to do it.

A big part of my job is also making sure people working here are safe. In a live plant, with gas everywhere, every job requires a Permit to Work. Something virtually unheard of if your job is a secretary, teacher, IT guy, eh? Imagine, needing to get permission to do work???

Well, offshore you do. We draw up a legally binding contract where everything needed to avoid certain injury is spelled out and then we sign on it. Like I said, it's legally binding, that's why we need the signatures.

Say, for example, Mr. Big Guy wants to replace a light bulb. So the contract will go something like this:

1) Mr. Big might get electrocuted while he unscrews the lightbulb - so shut off the power supply

2) Mr. Big might fall off the ladder should he reach too far - so assign someone to hold on to the ladder

3) Mr. Big might get blown away if the wind gets too strong - so check the weather forecast 1st

And I make sure that the power supply is shut off, the ladder and the partner are all in place. Then I sign the form. Oh, I try to influence the wind and rain too, not always with success.

I am the last one to sign off, the final gate, if you may. Work starts after that. If do not sign and the guy works, then it's his responsibility if anything happens. After I sign, it becomes mine.

At times, the sheer thought of life in my hands, at the stroke of a pen, overcomes me. You see, I have this innate eager to please, "chin-chai-lah" nature. The quissential Asian. It is natural for me to reason away people's bad behaviour. Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe he's having a bad day cos he just quarreled with his wife. I call it seeing the glass half full. :)

But this will not do offshore. You see, people tend to be lazy. And complacent.

"It's only for a short while, no need-lah."

"I have walk all the way back to isolate the power...nothing is going to happen, Miss, don't worry"

"Why don't you sign first, we'll take care of it later"

"I've been doing this for twenty years - no need to tell me lar (to themselves: you young disrespectful ungrateful know-nothing busybody- sometimes I can practically hear people think this)

Me (fake smile): Pls do this favour for me pls pls pls- and thank you for giving a damn about your own life. (what I really want to say: No wonder-lah you're still doing the same thing after 20 years)

It did not take me long to comprehend that that me being too flexible might also mean me signing a death warrant. *Damn drama!*

It was last week when it happenned. The guys were taking out one of our turbines and replacing it with a new one. The turbine weighs about 4 tons. The engineer, someone whom I deeply respect and have heard nothing but good things about, unscrewed the bolts from the base of the turbine support. Then he gave the go-ahead for one of his techs to unbolt the other side, located underneath the turbine. I saw it happenning - like slow motion - the 4-ton turbine slowly tilt downwards and I put my hand on the shoulder of the tech before he was to go underneath it. The turbine keeled over, and breaking its final support, and crashed down. Had the tech continued what he was doing, the turbine would have crushed his head and upper torso.

I could not sleep that night. We never really know, do we? Life, like some flickle butterfly, can seem to take off in a fleeting. I wondered how we could have avoided the fall in the first place. I wondered how to tackle the always conflicting voices in my head - should I tell him? I might lose his respect, he's THE expert, he should know better than me. I don't want people thinking of me as some kind of paranoid control freak who gets off telling people that they're doing things wrong.

I am no saint. And while I'd like to think that I genuinely care for the guys, I have to sign quite a number of permits in one day. It's difficult, not to mention tiring, to care for all of them. Plus there's always the bloody voices in my head. And always resistance. I want people to like me. Why the hell am I getting into a fight with someone to safeguard his life? Why in the world should I give a damn?

For very selfish reasons. Because I don't want the burden of guilt. Because I have read about too many real life cases where lives were lost or destroyed due to lack of control and precaution. Because I know you have a life, a family to feed back home, and I never want to be the one to face them and tell them that I did not do everything I could. Because, even thought we both don't like it, I am responsible for you. Ad I'll do my damn best to make sure that you're as safe as possible, even if you hate me for it. Even if I hate being hated.

So I'll do my best to cajole, wheedle and pretty please and (bloody) thank you to someone so he doesn't get too mad putting his safety stuff in place (it usually involves quite a lot of extra work). I might be a pain in the a**, but I'll try to be as nice a pain in the a** as possible, cos I'm young and trying impress upon people that I have a good attitude.

Just you wait till I rack up my years. Then, I might not be so nice. Heheh..

On the day I was supposed to come back to shore, the abovementioned tech came and shook hands with me, thanking me for "pulling him out". I almost cried there and then. Guess there are rewards for doing this.

Fishing Season

It's fishing season here offshore!

Actually, it's fishing season all year round. Fish here thrive on the food scraps we dispose of into the ocean. Of course, there are other scraps that we throw into the ocean too, if you know what I mean (we're 120 kilometres out - of course it all gets flushed to the sea - after some, erm, processing of course)

Back to the fish. A large school of tuna-lookalikes thrives under our living quarters, ever ready for anything we toss into the sea. Anything that drops down, edible or not, is descended upon like a pack of wolves. It's pretty fascinating to watch.

Almost as constant a presence are the fishermen. While ours is a so-called restricted area, we don't mind them so much as long as they don't endanger themselves hanging out too near our platform. Of course, one never knows if the innocent looking wooden dinghy with the national flag is actually a masquerading member of the Abu Sayyaf or a pirate - but most of the time these folks are actually endangering themselves more than us.

Mind you, we have tons of flammable gas in our piping. Put together a sudden release and a fisherman lighting a cigarette...well, enough said.

Everyone has to make a living right? Cari makan. Company procedures dictate that we should get our standby boat to drive them away, but we try not to set our standby vessel on them if they stay in the "clear" zones. After all, it's a hard life, rocking in their tiny boats and at the mercy of the sun, sea and storms. I wonder how many days at a time they are out, and how their boats hold up to the strong wind and waves we've been experiencing lately.

One of the fishing boats apparently gifted our standby vessel with a catch of theirs - one of the lot living under our quarters. From 20 to 30 metres up where we stand on the platform, they don't look all that big.


As you can see, they are not at all like the average fishes one gets at the local market.


This one was pregnant.


Apparently the flesh is too tough to eat fresh, so our catering crew will salt and dry the flesh. Guess this monster will provide enough salted fish for quite a couple of months. And yes, it is edible, albeit not very delicious. But hey, nothing beats fresh fish right out of the ocean, right?

Disclaimer: Fishing from an offshore platform, is, by my company's rules, illegal. WE DID NOT CATCH THIS FISH.

Just one of the gorgeous views we get every day...

Can't resist showing off (just a little). Looks like something out of a movie, isn't it? The sun's rays shining through the clouds - there's something heavenly about this scene.

Nose to the Grindstone

And so ends my 2 weeks of onshore leave. I had a really fulfilling time off - I believe this trip back onshore has been the one where I spent the least time working - only 2 days in the office, and 2 days spent in JB.

Summary of what I (we) did:

1) Experimented with cooking oyster, button and flower mushrooms - roasting, microwaving and deep frying - we like the roasted oyster mushrooms best
2) Made pizza from scratch
3) Hosted friends for dinner - first time that it was me and only me cooking - and it was great (no post on this though because I did not take any photographs - pity)
4) Planted more pumpkins
5) Made Penang prawn noodles from scratch - success!
6) Adopted a stray cat and made him our baby
7) Went for a walk on the beach - also will post on this soon

On top of all that, I was also running around town sorting out some personal stuff, which I normally dread doing but this time is was for a great reason.

All in all I would say I had a great time not working and doing all of the above (except the errands). I feel refreshed, happy and contented as opposed to the previous trips when even my offdays were spent working, which resulted in me returning offshore exhausted and sullen.

After all, it was during my last offshore stint, when I felt like that, that I started this blog and vowed to do a whole lot more than return to the office during my leave days. I wanted to make the most of my time off and do stuff that actually made me happy.

I work to live and not otherwise. I work to live, work to live. Work to live. :)

BUT it's nose to the grindstone now for me. No more kitchen experiments for the next two weeks....I am in my offshore mode, here to earn my living so that I may enjoy all the rest of the stuff I am into now.

Let the countdown (to the 17th of this month) begin.

I've Learned

As I inch nearer and nearer to end of my offshore stint, there are a few things I've learnt and never want to let go, as I know I probably will never have the same feelings about another job again.

I love my work offshore for many things - most of all the comraderie I share with my collegues, and, I believe, true friendships borne out of living, working, tolerating, and, in the end, celebrating each other.

How many jobs offer so many laughs in one day? In other places, many hands make light work (to me) is a saying - after work we go back to our own homes, families and private lives (as we should). But offshore, the platform is my home, and I share it with my collegues, who are my family and there is virtually no truly private life, except, fortunately for me, in sleep. But even in sleep our time is not ours - the plant, should she feel neglected, might call, and we have to answer.


I could go on about how we are cut off from the rest of the world, about "losing" pieces of one's life when offshore. About how, for these 2 weeks, our lives are totally, one hundred percent devoted to work and little else (after all, what else is there??) Where we are at the beck and call of the plant, and being waken up in the middle of the night to go out to the field. Physical work, or attempting to solve problems that persist for 30-odd hours straight is just part and parcel of offshore life.


I will be forever grateful for the past 2 years offshore. I have learnt more than I could ever expect, cried some, torn my hair and endured chest pains and hallucinations on many an occasion. But it was offshore that tested my personal courage, my patience, my ability to keep on going when I thought I could not.

I learnt that even when you are having one horrible day, when someone comes to you you still have to just put on that smile - because you have to live, work, sleep, eat with that person. And - the magical thing is that when you do force that smile out the corners of your mouth - one smile leads to another, and something funny gets said, or something great gets done - and your heart smiles (laughs) too. Sometimes it does not even have to be some work done, it could be a joke, a compliment, the sun coming out and making the water sparkle, or the wind suddenly blows into your face and feels like a hug - how to keep up the bad mood?

I do believe that work outdoors - under the sun and with the wind full in one's face - this is how work should be (romantisizing the oil and gas industry - am I the first?? :) ). I'll be the first to admit that this is no farming or gardening - no weeding or feeling the soil in your hands or watching things grow. We have running pumps, an engine designed for a Boeing 737 and flammable gas everywhere to work with.

But most importantly, we have each other. I am not sure about the rest of my crew since I am comparatively very new and they have truly been through a lot more than me. That said, we did go through some trying times together in the past 2 years, and it is an honour for me to have these people with me during these times.

When I read this in a forwarded email, some of the verses rang so true to me:

I've learned -
that it's not what happens to people that's important. It's what they do about it.

I've learned -
that you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I've learned -
that we are responsible for what we do,
no matter how we feel.

I've learned -
that either you control your attitude
or it controls you.

I've learned -
that sometimes the people you expect
to kick you when you're down
will be the ones to help you get back up.

I've learned -
that sometimes when I'm angry
I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn't give methe right to be cruel.

I've learned -
that our background and circumstances
may have influenced who we are,but we are responsible for who we become.

I've learned -
that sometimes you have to put the individual ahead of their actions.

Yes, I've Learned Many things. And I hope I never forget.